Alabama executes man who killed elderly couple in 2004

ATMORE, Alabama — An Alabama man received the lethal injection Thursday for the 2004 killing of an elderly couple, making him the first inmate executed by the state since it became the first in the country to use nitrogen gas to execute an inmate months ago.

Jamie Ray Mills, 50, was pronounced dead at 6:26 p.m. after being injected with three different drugs at a southwest Alabama prison, authorities said. Lethal injection remains the standard method of execution in Alabama unless a death row inmate requests nitrogen gas or the electric chair.

Mills was found guilty of capital murders of 87-year-old Floyd Hill and his 72-year-old wife Vera. Prosecutors said the two were attacked with a hammer, machete and tire tools in their home about 80 miles northwest of Birmingham on June 24, 2004.

“Tonight, two decades after he committed these murders, Jamie Mills has paid the price for his heinous crimes. I pray for the victims and their families,” Alabama Governor Kay Ivey said in a statement.

As the execution began, Mills gave a thumbs up to family members watching from a witness room and later mouthed the words “I love you” toward them.

“I love my family. I love my brother and my sister. I couldn’t ask for anything more,” Mills said, looking in the direction of his brother and sister. He also thanked his attorney, Charlotte Morrison of the Equal Justice Initiative. “Charlotte, you fought hard for me. I love you all. Keep going.” Some of his relatives wept quietly during the execution.

As the first means of execution—a sedative—flowed, Mills appeared to rapidly lose consciousness while a spiritual advisor prayed at the foot of the gurney.

In 2007, a jury convicted Jamie Mills of capital crimes and voted 11 to 1 in favor of the death sentence, which the judge imposed.

Floyd Hill was the primary caregiver for his wife, who was diabetic and in poor health. He kept her medications in a tackle box in the couple’s kitchen. The Hills regularly held garage sales to supplement their income. When the couple’s granddaughter was unable to reach them, officers found them in pools of blood in the backyard shed where they stored garage sale items. Floyd Hill died of wounds to his head and neck, and Vera Hill died about 12 weeks later from complications of head trauma, court records show.

Relatives of the victims were present at the execution and declared that “justice had been done” after 20 years of waiting.

“Our family can now have closure with this heinous crime he committed and our dear grandparents can rest in peace. May this be a lesson to those who believe justice will not find them. Hopefully this will deter others from committing future crimes. God help us all,” the Hill and Freeman families said in a statement.

At the 2007 trial, JoAnn Mills became the key witness against her partner, testifying that after spending the night smoking methamphetamine, her husband took her to the victims’ home and saw her husband repeatedly beat the couple in the garden shed, court documents show.

In the final appeal, lawyers for Mills, who maintained his innocence in court, had argued that newly obtained evidence showed that prosecutors lied when they said they had made a deal with Mills’ wife to spare her from seeking the death penalty if she testified against her husband.

JoAnn Mills’ trial attorney wrote in a February affidavit that he met with the prosecutor before the 2007 trial, who allowed her to plead guilty to a lesser charge if she testified. On the witness stand, JoAnn Mills said she only hoped to gain “a little forgiveness from God” by testifying.

After the execution, the Equal Justice Initiative said prosecutors had “lied, deceived, and misrepresented the credibility of the evidence against Jamie Mills for 17 years.”

“The day will come when governments recognise the perverse injustice of this trial and the illegitimacy of this punishment. For Jamie Mills, that day will be too late, making his death a tragic and regrettable injustice,” the statement continued.

Alabama Attorney General Steve Marshall said there was a wealth of evidence against Mills. “His actions were cold and calculated, and the punishment he received was never more deserved,” Marshall said.

On January 25, Alabama inmate Kenneth Eugene Smith was executed with nitrogen gas, the first method of its kind that sparked a new debate about the death penalty. The state called the method humane, but critics called it cruel and experimental.

Smith was executed by inhaling pure nitrogen gas through a face mask, which resulted in oxygen deprivation. It was the first new method of execution in the United States since the introduction of lethal injection, which is now the most commonly used method, in 1982. Smith was convicted of the 1988 murder of a preacher’s wife, Elizabeth Sennett.